Dear Jan, Is it acceptable to write a piece in second tense for the writing competition? I have had difficulties with tenses in the past and wanted to know if you had a lesson on tenses or could possibly a link where I could brush up on my tenses?

Thanks,Richard

Last edited by rtodd5011 on Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Richard, I'm not sure what you mean by "second tense," as that's not a grammatical term I've ever heard of. I wonder if you mean "second person."

If so, it would be very unusual to have a second person entry, where the POV character is "you." A second person POV would be something like this:

You wonder where you left your car keys, and you look in all the places where they usually hide. They aren't in any of the places you look, so you decide to walk to the store...

That would make for an unusual entry, and you'd have to have a very compelling reason to write that way. In my many years here at FaithWriters, I only remember one or two entries written in second person.

However, I suspect that maybe you mean "present tense." Much of contemporary literary fiction is written in present tense. Here's an example of an old challenge entry of mine using that tense:

Jan, I just had to stop by & say beautiful story.... it reminded me why I write. It's unique, delivers a strong message, and brake the rules ("Jesuslovesyou".... "Worst. Witness. Ever."... among others) It's the little things like these that makes a story stands out.

Here's a link for a TED talk by Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield. Even though this is a talk, not a written piece, I thought it was interested how much of the talk is in second person, present tense (but with notable inconsistencies).

Steve
nlf.net
________
"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow Galahad or Mordred; middle
things are gone." C.S. Lewis
“The chief purpose of life … is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks. To do as we say in the Gloria in Excelsis ... We praise you, we call you holy, we worship you, we proclaim your glory, we thank you for the greatness of your splendor.” J.R.R. Tolkien